OOBERMIND enlists Brad Pitt, Will Ferrell and Jonah Hill
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- By abefroman
DreamWorks Animation has nabbed three more superstars to voice superheroes in Oobermind. Brad Pitt, Will Ferrell and Jonah Hill join Tina Fey to lend their voices to the comedy set for a November 5th 2010 release. Ferrell replaces Robert Downey Jr. who exited due to scheduling conflicts.
The film will star Ferrel in the title role, as a supervillain who imagines all his dastardly dreams coming true after defeating good-guy rival Metro Man (Pitt), only to find life quite boring without an adversary. To fill the void, Oobermind creates a new superhero, Titan (Hill), who also wants to be bad, forcing Oobermind to switch sides. Fey, was already onboard to play the reporter tasked with keeping track of the city’s confusing superhero situation.
Oobermind is being helmed by the Madagascar film’s co-director Tom McGrath, and being produced by Ben Stiller.
I’m usually not a fan of “stunt casting”, which refers to recognizable names being cast in voice roles. I feel studios do that too often, and leave out extremely talented, and underpaid voice actors. But this cast brings considerable voice-over experience to the table.
Fey can be heard in Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo, Disney’ current animated release.
Pitt previously voiced the lead in Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas for Dreamworks, while Hill has a lead role in the studio’s How to Train Your Dragon, slated for next year.
Ferrell recorded the short-lived sitcom The Oblongs. He voiced the man with the yellow hat in Curious George. And just by looking at the picture of Oobermind, I can already imagine the voice being a mix of Ferrell’s Black Knight on Family Guy, and Mugatu from Zoolander.
Earlier this summer, CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg told Daily Variety he expects 2010 to be a big year for the company, picking up the slack for the underperformance of its only 2009 release, Monsters vs. Aliens. DWA has an ambitious 2010 slate, with Dragon, Shrek Forever After and Oobermind lined up. All three toons will be distributed in stereoscopic 3-D.
I thought Monsters Vs Aliens was a great film, and did well in theaters, grossing nearly 380 million worldwide. But considering Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa grossed over 600 million internationally, and Shrek the Third raked in nearly 800 million… you can see why they’d be in distress.
Here’s to hoping Oobermind won’t just be a rip off of Pixar’s The Incredibles. And here’s to hoping Oobermind will be as good as Pixar’s The Incredibles.
Source: Variety
Now, it should also be noted that Fey did voice-over work for a pinball game. But I wouldn't put her voice-acting experience up against somebody like Caitlin Glass. I think the same argment applies to Ferrell, Pitt and Hill.
I don't think there's any chance of it being as good as the Incredibles. But hopefully it'll be enjoyable.
touche. Or agreed, rather. I've said it before, but I'll say it again. Dreamworks is the Jan Brady to Pixar's Marsha. Granted they've given Pixar a couple of football's to the face, they're still the ugly sister.
Yeah, they'll beat Pixar at the box office occasionally, but I don't think any of the American animation studios are as committed to story-telling as Pixar is.